Ockhams Sampler Extracts from the finalist books in the Booksellers Aotearoa New Zealand Award for Illustrated Non-Fiction at the 2021 Ockham New ...

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Ockhams Sampler Extracts from the finalist books in the Booksellers Aotearoa New Zealand Award for Illustrated Non-Fiction at the 2021 Ockham New ...
Ockhams
 Sampler
                        Extracts from
            the finalist books in the
Booksellers Aotearoa New Zealand
  Award for Illustrated Non-Fiction
 at the 2021 Ockham New Zealand
                        Book Awards
Ockhams Sampler Extracts from the finalist books in the Booksellers Aotearoa New Zealand Award for Illustrated Non-Fiction at the 2021 Ockham New ...
Booksellers Aotearoa New Zealand
                                                                                  Contents
Award for Illustrated Non-Fiction                                                      AN EXQUISITE LEGACY:
                                                                                       THE LIFE AND WORK
                                                                                       OF NEW ZEALAND

                                                                                  4
                      The Booksellers Aotearoa New Zealand Award for                   NATURALIST G.V.
                      Illustrated Non-Fiction at the Ockham New Zealand                HUDSON
                      Book Awards recognises excellence in works — by one
                      or more authors — with combined strength of illustration         George Gibbs
                      and text. Prize money in this category is $10,000.               Published by Potton & Burton
                         The Illustrated Non-Fiction category in 2021 is judged
                      by Dale Cousens (Ngāruahine) of the National Library
                      of New Zealand (convenor); bookseller and former                 HIAKAI: MODERN
                      publisher Brian Phillips; and writer, graphic designer           MĀORI CUISINE
                      and magazine art director Jenny Nicholls.
  The judging panel says, “The four finalists are standout examples of a
                                                                                  12   Monique Fiso
                                                                                       Published by Godwit,
dazzlingly broad range of passions, from the arts and sciences to food,                Penguin Random House
adventure and the outdoors, distilled into beautiful and engaging works
which will hold their own for years to come.”
  This Ockhams Sampler gives you a taste of the craft at play in each of this
year’s shortlisted books. You can read the judges’ comments about each                 MARTI FRIEDLANDER:

                                                                                  22
finalist in blue at the start of that title’s extract.                                 PORTRAITS OF THE
                                                                                       ARTISTS
Look out for samplers of the finalists in the other three categories in the
                                                                                       Leonard Bell
Ockham New Zealand Book Awards. As they are rolled out in the coming
                                                                                       Published by Auckland University Press
weeks, you will find them here:

www.anzliterature.com                                                                  NATURE — STILLED

www.nzbookawards.nz/new-zealand-book-awards
                                                                                  30   Jane Ussher
                                                                                       Published by Te Papa Press
Ockhams Sampler Extracts from the finalist books in the Booksellers Aotearoa New Zealand Award for Illustrated Non-Fiction at the 2021 Ockham New ...
An Exquisite
                               Legacy: The Life
                               and Work of
                               New Zealand
                               Naturalist
                               G.V. Hudson
                                                                                               5
                               JUDGES’ COMMENTS

                               George Hudson’s grandson has produced a glorious
                               tribute to his grandfather, not only one of New Zealand’s
                               greatest naturalists but also an artist of dazzling skill. In
                               reproducing so many of these paintings for the first time,
                               the author is scientifically and artistically scrupulous,
                               with detailed captions and superb production values.
                               Crucially, this is also an enlightening and lovingly written
                               biography — we are drawn inside the world of an insect-
                               mad fellow who became a significant figure in our natural
                               history landscape.

Published by Potton & Burton   Selected spreads overleaf
Ockhams Sampler Extracts from the finalist books in the Booksellers Aotearoa New Zealand Award for Illustrated Non-Fiction at the 2021 Ockham New ...
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Ockhams Sampler Extracts from the finalist books in the Booksellers Aotearoa New Zealand Award for Illustrated Non-Fiction at the 2021 Ockham New ...
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Ockhams Sampler Extracts from the finalist books in the Booksellers Aotearoa New Zealand Award for Illustrated Non-Fiction at the 2021 Ockham New ...
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Ockhams Sampler Extracts from the finalist books in the Booksellers Aotearoa New Zealand Award for Illustrated Non-Fiction at the 2021 Ockham New ...
Hiakai:
                                            Modern Māori
                                            Cuisine

                                                                                                          13
                                            JUDGES’ COMMENTS

                                            Hiakai is no ordinary cookbook but rather one which,
                                            unusually, lets us see our natural environment with fresh
                                            eyes. Coming from award-winning chef Monique Fiso,
                                            it is the result of years of labour and research into Māori
                                            cuisine and all it represents. Passionately written, well
                                            edited, beautifully illustrated and presented, Hiakai
                                            weaves tikanga, history, cultivation, foraging and hunting
                                            into an influential classic of the kitchen, and also of
                                            cultural history; in these recipes Fiso shows the range of
                                            indigenous ingredients with sophisticated flair.

Published by Godwit, Penguin Random House   Selected spreads overleaf
Ockhams Sampler Extracts from the finalist books in the Booksellers Aotearoa New Zealand Award for Illustrated Non-Fiction at the 2021 Ockham New ...
K A I M Ā O RI C O O KIN G
     M E TH O D S

     Hāngi                                         diameter and up to half a metre deep.
     Putting down a hāngi is a serious             Each family had their own pit and would
     business, requiring a high degree of          reuse it.
     organisation, preparation, fortitude and          To begin, a fire was carefully laid in
     patience. In the 21st century, a hāngi is a   the pit, with wood layered on until level
     major event – a style of cooking used for     with the opening. Special stones – ideally
     celebrations, family gatherings or other      volcanic rocks, which withstand high
14   important occasions. For early Māori,         temperatures, rather than sedimentary                 15
     cooking in an underground earth oven          river stones that can shatter – were set
     was a way of life they’d always practised.    on top. A hāngi fire needed to burn for
     Hāngi were prepared largely by women          at least an hour or two (depending on
     while the men were hunting, with the          the size of the pit) to sufficiently heat the
     food ready for the evening meal. Any          stones through so they held enough heat to
     leftovers, particularly vegetables, were      cook the food when the hāngi was sealed.
     eaten the next morning.                       This part of the process cannot be rushed.
         At its most basic, a hāngi is an          Sometimes stones were heated in the
     underground steam oven. The food –            ordinary cooking fire (adjacent to the pit)
     wrapped in leaves or in woven baskets         rather than in a separate fire laid in the pit.
     – is flavoured by smoke from the initial          After the fire had been burning solidly
     fire, the surrounding earth and the native    for an hour or two, the bottom of the pit
     plants used. Then, as now, the size of        would be a sea of wood ash and white-hot
     the hāngi pit (umu) varied depending          stones. At this point, any unburnt wood
     on the number of people being cooked          would be removed and water sprinkled
     for and what was being cooked in it.          over the stones to wash away leftover
     Archaeologists have discovered huge umu       ashes (ashes left in a hāngi taint the taste
     in the South Island that may have been        of the food). The stones were levelled out
     used to cook seals or moa. Usually, pits      and a woven band of harakeke, called
     were much smaller – around a metre in         a pae umu, was inserted into the pit to

                                                                                            ——————— 53
Ockhams Sampler Extracts from the finalist books in the Booksellers Aotearoa New Zealand Award for Illustrated Non-Fiction at the 2021 Ockham New ...
16

——————— 55

                  1 ——————— T H E B E G I N N I N G
Ockhams Sampler Extracts from the finalist books in the Booksellers Aotearoa New Zealand Award for Illustrated Non-Fiction at the 2021 Ockham New ...
WHENUA: L AND

     HUHU GRUBS                                     grub’s outer shell expands and becomes
     Prionoplus reticularis                         crisp when cooked in a pan of hot oil,
     LOCATE D: AC ROS S AOTEAROA                    adding a delicious crunch.

     Dig down into the damp cavities of
     rotten logs and you’ll often find one of       KĀKĀ
     Aotearoa’s finest delicacies – the huhu        Bush parrot
18   grub (see page 102). These fat, wrinkly        Nestor meridionalis                                  19
     bugs (larvae of the endemic huhu beetle)       LO C ATED: I S LAN D AN D COAS TAL
     provided a rich source of fat to the early     AR EAS ; N EAR P R EDATO R-CO N TRO LLED
     Māori diet. Considered one of nature’s         AR EAS
     greatest little recyclers, huhu grubs munch
     through decomposed trees that would            The kākā is a large, forest-dwelling parrot
     otherwise bury the forest floor.               known for being playful and talkative.
         Today, most people approach eating         Māori often make reference to the kākā’s
     huhu grubs with a ‘fear factor’ mentality.     chatty characteristics when describing
     But while they’ll never win an award for       people: someone known for being a
     being the most attractive morsel on the        gasbag is often described as he kākā waha
     planet, huhu grubs taste great and no          nui (a big-mouthed kākā). Kākā are greedy
     serious foodie should be afraid to give        as well as gregarious – they eat a varied
     them a go.                                     diet of native berries, seeds, insects, nectar
         To enjoy a huhu grub: first grab your      and sap, often until they’re too full to fly.
     axe. Split a decaying log right down the          Kākā were one of the few birds that
     middle, then pluck out a grub and eat it       Māori kept as pets, often teaching them
     raw. As you bite down, a small burst of        to mimic other species and using them
     peanut butteriness will pop in your mouth.     as decoys when hunting. This didn’t stop
     If you prefer a less ‘lively’ version, sauté   them from becoming food themselves
     the grubs with a little garlic and salt. The   – kākā were a staple of the Māori diet,

                                                                                           ——————— 103
F R I E D H U H U G R U B S,
          K Ū M A R A G N OCC H I ,
          H U H U SAU C E
          SERVES 4

          Huhu grubs have a mild nuttiness that made me think of satay sauce when I first tried
          them. I created a sauce with roasted huhus, and to my surprise it tasted a lot like a
          chestnut sauce we served with agnolotti at A Voce, in New York. I decided to serve the
          sauce with a kūmara gnocchi as a tribute to my time working the pasta section at A Voce.

          FO R THE KŪM ARA GNOCCHI :                              FOR THE HUHU SAUCE:
          200 g kūmara, roasted and mashed                        1 T vegetable oil
          30 g Parmesan, finely grated                            15 huhu grubs
          125 g buckwheat flour, plus extra for rolling           1 small white onion, peeled and finely diced
          ¾ T salt                                                2 cloves garlic, peeled and finely diced
          Finely grated zest of 1 lemon                           50 g peanuts, roasted and shelled
          2 T olive oil                                           ½ tsp dried horopito flakes (see page 262)
          Salt, to taste                                          100 ml chicken stock
          2 T vegetable oil                                       250 ml cream
          Black pepper, freshly ground                            Flaky sea salt
                                                                  Ground white pepper
20        Using your hands, mix together the mashed kūmara,       Freshly squeezed lime juice                             21
          Parmesan, buckwheat flour, salt and lemon zest.
          Knead mixture with your hands until a sticky dough      Set a saucepan over medium heat. Add the oil,
          forms. Divide in half.                                  followed by the huhu grubs. Toast the grubs for
              Dust a work surface with buckwheat flour. Roll      1 minute, then stir in the onion, garlic and peanuts.
          each portion of dough into a long rope, then cut        Sauté until the onions are soft and caramelised. Stir
          into 2 cm pieces.                                       in the horopito flakes, chicken stock and cream.
              Bring a large pot of water to the boil. Add the     Simmer gently for 15 minutes. Remove from the
          olive oil and a generous spoonful of salt. Cook the     heat and pour into a high-speed blender and purée
          gnocchi in batches for about 3 minutes. Remove          until smooth. Season with flaky sea salt, ground
          with a slotted spoon, then drop them into a bowl        white pepper and a few drops of lime juice. Pour the
          of iced water. Drain gnocchi and arrange on a lined     sauce through a fine mesh sieve and serve hot.
          tray. Leave uncovered in the fridge overnight.
              When you’re ready to serve, set a sauté pan over
          medium-hot heat and add the vegetable oil. When
          it’s hot, add 1–2 handfuls of gnocchi and sauté until
          golden brown and hot in the middle. Season with
          salt and black pepper and serve immediately.

     158 ———————
Marti
                                         Friedlander:
                                         Portraits of the
                                         Artists

                                                                                                      23
                                         JUDGES’ COMMENTS

                                         This elegantly produced collection of photographs,
                                         the bulk of which have never been published before,
                                         is exquisitely designed and edited — and the image
                                         reproduction is exceptional. The accompanying text
                                         breathes life into these individuals and, thanks to the
                                         layout, Marti Friedlander’s uncanny ability to capture the
                                         spirit of her subjects shines through. With images of over
                                         110 artists, photographed over several decades, this
                                         important volume is a wonderful cultural account of mid-
                                         to-late twentieth century creative life in New Zealand.

Published by Auckland University Press
Keith Sinclair (1922–1993)

     Friedlander photographed historian, poet, aspiring politician and friend Professor Keith
     Sinclair on several occasions from the late 1960s to the early 1990s: ‘Keith thought of me as
     his photographer.’164 Several were used as dust-jacket author or cover photographs for his
     books, including The Reefs of Fire (1977) and A Destiny Apart: New Zealand’s Search for
     National Identity (1986). Others accompanied articles about Sinclair, in particular when
     he was the Labour candidate for Eden in the 1969 parliamentary elections. Labour Party
     brochures and promotional material also made good use of Friedlander’s portraits.
     Her portraits ranged from the relatively formal to the casual, as in the photograph of Sinclair
     with a kingfish he had caught while sailing on Gerrard Friedlander’s yacht. This image,
     with its understated wit and irony, was reproduced in multiple places – with Tony Reid’s
     Auckland Weekly News article ‘A Professor in the House? New Zealand Intellectual in Search
     of a Political Role’,165 in a New Zealand Herald front-page feature article, ‘Man of the People’,
     and in Sinclair’s memoir, Halfway Round the Harbour (1993).166
         Friedlander first met Sinclair, whom she described as ‘dapper’ and not modest, at a
     party on the North Shore: ‘Keith wasn’t a listener. He was a talker. . . . a typical New Zealand
     male. He was not a good communicator.’ She noted, ‘[He] is not an easy subject for the
     camera, he is always very tense,’167 which Sinclair himself readily recognised: ‘My friend the
     photographer Marti Friedlander went to endless trouble to take some good photographs
24   of me – I was tense in front of the camera and could rarely smile.’168                                                                25
         A close-up of Sinclair’s face, looking back at the viewer, his expression sombre,
     was reproduced with Marilyn Duckworth’s review of his fourth volume of poetry
     in the New Zealand Listener (1973): ‘In The Firewheel Tree the lover is as predominant
     as the historian, the philosopher is also the fatalist. His cynicism is that of a disillusioned
     romantic who will never be completely disillusioned.’169 Friedlander’s ambiguous and
     multi-connotational image was an apt choice.
         Years later when Sinclair asked Friedlander to take photographs for his memoir: ‘I took
     him to the beach [Point Chevalier] to photograph him because that’s where he’d been in his
     childhood, hoping that he’d relax.’170
         The portrait opposite offers another face.

                                                                                                         Keith Sinclair, Auckland, 1969.

     160
Merata Mita (1942–2010)

     [I]f you’re a Maori woman and that’s all you are, that alone will put you on a collision course
     with the rest of society and its expectations. And if you flatly refuse to give up your Maori
     value system for an easier way of life and you live in a society that is supposed to be bicultural
     and multicultural but isn’t . . . then you’ll be in conflict with how that society is run and how
     it sees itself. — merata mita 315

     Friedlander photographed Merata Mita (Ngāti Pikiao and Ngāi Te Rangi) for Head and
     Shoulders: Successful New Zealand Women Talk to Virginia Myers (1986). A full-page black-
     and-white portrait features on the page facing the brief introduction to Mita’s reflections.
     She fills most of the frame. She sits in semi-profile, hands in her lap, composed, looking to
     the right, as if far-seeing – which she was.
         Maketū-born Mita was one of New Zealand’s best and most influential filmmakers, both
     here and internationally. The director of such justly famous films as Bastion Point: Day 507
     (1980), Patu! (1983), Mauri (1988) and Saving Grace: Te Whakarauora Tangata (2011),
     she was the first Māori woman director. Her youngest son, Heperi Mita (the son of Mita’s
     second husband, fellow director Geoff Murphy), directed the recent film Merata: How Mum
     Decolonised the Screen (2018), following her life from childhood and her first unhappy and
     abusive marriage in the Bay of Plenty, her escape to Auckland with her children, intermittent
26   work and a hand-to-mouth life, before entering into television as the frontperson for Māori                                         27
     affairs programme Koha in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and then film in New Zealand
     and the USA. When Mita, who trained as a teacher, began in film, the medium and industry
     here was almost entirely, with few exceptions, dominated by Pākehā men. Pioneer Māori
     filmmaker Barry Barclay (1944–2008) and Gaylene Preston (born 1947) inspired Mita, just
     as she has in turn been an inspiration for many people in film, especially women, Māori and
     indigenous peoples worldwide.316
         Mita, an activist for Māori and women, made movies that are impassioned, urgent,
     vivid in their imagery, and sustained by empathy and recognition that people are flawed and
     make mistakes, yet can also ‘do the right thing’ (a nod to African-American director Spike
     Lee and his 1989 film of that name). Mita’s impact was and is huge. Back in 1986 she said
     her films would be worthwhile if they make ‘Maori people feel stronger about themselves’.317
     She was honoured with a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2010.

                                                                                                          Merata Mita, Auckland, 1985.

     278
Francis Pound (1948–2017)

     Francis Pound, whose early years were spent in Ohakune and Hamilton, was a child of the
     mid- to late-1960s countercultural turbulence. He started as an artist, with a BFA and
     MFA from the University of Auckland, then shifted to art criticism and art history, initially
     freelance and then while a lecturer in art history at the same university. He was a tutor there
     when Friedlander took two art history courses in 1976.324
         Friedlander photographed Pound on two occasions: in the early 1980s for the author
     photo in Frames on the Land: Early Landscape Painting in New Zealand (1983) and in the
     late 1990s for Stories We Tell Ourselves: The Paintings of Richard Killeen (1999).325
         Pound’s other books include Forty Modern New Zealand Paintings (1985), The Space
     Between: Pakeha Use of Maori Motifs in Modern New Zealand Art (1994), Walters:
     En Abyme (2004) – which accompanied a fine exhibition at the Gus Fisher Gallery that he
     curated – and his magisterial The Invention of New Zealand: Art and National Identity,
     1930–1970 (2009). He also wrote numerous articles for periodicals, especially Art New
     Zealand, and essays in exhibition catalogues, some of which he curated, such as the
     New Image show (1983) at Auckland Art Gallery. And he guest-edited a special issue of
     Landfall, ‘The Fifties Issue’ (1993), in tandem with the big art, design and architecture of
     the 1950s show also at Auckland Art Gallery.
         Pound’s books were intensively researched, sometimes over many (twenty-plus) years,
28   elegantly written, invariably a pleasure to read, whether or not you agreed with what he had                                       29
     to say. Whether intentionally or not his writing could be provocative, as with Frames on
     the Land, The Space Between and The Invention of New Zealand. On one occasion another
     leading art writer initiated libel proceedings against Pound, necessitating the professional
     assistance of one of New Zealand’s foremost barristers, Paul Treadwell (1930–2017).
     The libel action was dropped and Treadwell became an admirer of his client’s writing.
         Pound was admired for his stylish clothes (evident in Friedlander’s portrait).
     They scored highly in student course evaluations. Little did they know that back in 1967,
     in a very different cultural climate, Pound was once apprehended by the police because his
     then-ragged clothing was deemed ‘an offence to women and children’. Pound grew up into
     a scholar, almost monk-like in his dedication to his objects of study (art and books) and his
     touching unworldliness – again suggested by Friedlander’s portrait. (Another disclosure:
     Francis and I were old and close friends.)

                                                                                                       Francis Pound, Auckland, 1999.

     282
Nature —
                             Stilled

                                                                                       31
                             JUDGES’ COMMENTS

                             This sumptuously beautiful book presents a wondrous
                             selection of specimens from Te Papa’s natural history
                             collection. Brilliantly photographed and produced,
                             it highlights not just the breadth of these collections
                             but also the knowledge and passion of those who
                             care for them. Jane Ussher is one of Aotearoa’s
                             most accomplished photographers and she has
                             clearly approached this project with great respect
                             and enthusiasm for the exhibits which represent our
                             vanishing natural world, and have never been more
                             worthy of our attention.

Published by Te Papa Press   Selected spreads overleaf
32                                                                                    33

                             Brissus gigas
                             Giant heart urchin

                             Of these three specimens of giant heart urchin,
                             the one on the left has retained its hair-like coating
                             of spines while the other two have lost theirs. The
                             smallest and largest specimens were collected at
                             the Poor Knights Islands, and the central specimen
     030   031   Plate 010   was collected at Whakaari White Island.
34   35
36   37
Birds   Plate 001                      p.012   Kiwi lay enormous eggs, up to 23 percent of the female’s body weight.They        Birds   Plate 043                      p.085      The 42 species of birds-of-paradise are among the most spectacular
             Plate 107                      p.214   are often described as having the largest egg in relation to body size of any            Plate 061                      p.129      birds in the world; many have astonishing plumage and courtship
                                                    bird, but the situation is more nuanced than that. Some storm petrels lay                Plate 092                      p.185      displays. The largest and showiest of them all are the six species in the
             Apteryx mantelli                       eggs that are up to 29 percent of the female’s body weight; however, storm                                                         genus Paradisaea. The first specimens of the genus to reach Europe
             North Island brown kiwi                petrels are very small birds, and the pattern across all bird species is for             Paradisaea raggiana                       (via Arabian spice traders) had been preserved for their plumes, with
             Kiwi                                   small bird species to lay relatively larger eggs than large bird species. At             Raggiana bird-of-paradise                 their legs removed. As a result, Carl Linnaeus, in 1758, described the
                                                    the other extreme, the largest egg of all is laid by the ostrich (the largest                                                      greater bird-of-paradise as Paradisaea apoda (meaning ‘legless’). This
                                                    living bird), but this is the smallest egg of any bird when expressed as a                                                         contributed to the belief that these beautiful visitors from paradise
                                                    percentage of female body weight (less than 4 percent). When egg size                                                              remained aloft, borne by their gorgeous plumes, until death brought them
                                                    is graphed against body size for all bird species, there is one clear outlier:                                                     to earth.
                                                    kiwi have eggs that are far larger than predicted for their body size when                                                             The Raggiana bird-of-paradise was named after the Marquis Francis
                                                    compared with any other bird — about six times larger than expected                                                                Raggi of Genoa. It is mainly found in southern Papua New Guinea, including
                                                    for a bird of 1–2 kg. Perhaps we should say that in relation to female body                                                        along the Fly River and around the capital, Port Moresby. Other members
                                                    weight, kiwi eggs are unexpectedly larger than those of any other bird.                                                            of the genus Paradisaea are found in the north of the country, in Western
                                                                                                                                                                                       New Guinea (now part of Indonesia), or on offshore islands.The distribution
                                                                                                                                                                                       of the Raggiana bird-of-paradise, as well as its large size and spectacular
             Plate 026                      p.062   The Te Papa research collection contains a large series of Chatham Island
                                                                                                                                                                                       plumes, resulted in it being selected as the national bird of Papua New
                                                    snipe and New Zealand shore plover skins collected on Rangatira South
                                                                                                                                                                                       Guinea, and it features on the nation’s flag.
             Coenocorypha pusilla                   East Island in Rekohu Chatham Islands, c. 1900. The specimens have
             Chatham Island snipe                   two different but distinctive data labels attached to their legs, indicating
                                                    that they had been in the possession of either Henry Travers or Sigvard                  Plate 040                      p.087      One of New Zealand’s least known extinct birds, the little bittern was extinct
                                                    Dannefærd.                                                                                                                         within 30 years of being formally described. It was named in 1871, based
                                                        Travers and Dannefærd were the main suppliers of rare New Zealand                    Ixobrychus novaezelandiae                 on a specimen collected at Lake Wakatipu. All subsequent records were
                                                    bird specimens to museums and private collectors for several decades                     New Zealand little bittern                from the West Coast, with most of the information about the birds in life
                                                    around the end of the nineteenth century. Both men went into the field                   Kaoriki                                   being recorded by the surveyor Charlie Douglas and the prospector and
                                                    themselves, but they were also dealers, sourcing specimens from others                                                             bird collector William Docherty.
                                                    who visited remote sites, and onselling them to willing buyers.                                                                        Douglas referred to little bitterns living in ‘such impossable swamps’
                                                        Forensic analysis of the labels on these snipe and shore plover                                                                that it was no wonder that they were seldom seen. Docherty (quoted by
                                                    specimens by the New Zealand Police Document Examination Section                                                                   Walter Buller) found them on the forested side of coastal lagoons, ‘standing
                                                    revealed that a third (unnamed) person had written on the labels, and                                                              on the bank of the lagoon, with their heads bent forward, studiously
                                                    that they had worked for both Travers and Dannefærd (and had apparently                                                            watching the water; at other times I have seen them standing straight up,
                                                    been supplied specimen labels by both men). This collaborative study                                                               almost perpendicular’. He considered them to be ‘very solitary, and always
38                                                  with the New Zealand Police also revealed that the same mystery person                                                             found alone, and they stand for hours in one place’.                             39
                                                    had collected other notable specimens from around Rakiura Stewart                                                                      Only 13 mounted specimens or study skins of New Zealand little bittern
                                                    Island (and held in the Te Papa collection) that had long been attributed                                                          are known to survive, including four in Te Papa, three in Canterbury Museum,
                                                    to Henry Travers.                                                                                                                  and one each in Whanganui Regional Museum and Otago Museum; one
                                                                                                                                                                                       is in Melbourne, and the remaining three in the United States.
             Plate 027                      p.065   Little spotted kiwi are the smallest kiwi species, with adults typically
             Plate 149                      p.294   weighing less than 1.4 kg. As a result, they are more vulnerable to stoat                Plate 042                      p.090      The kākā was abundant in the nineteenth century, and was hunted in large
                                                    predation than the four other kiwi species, and are considered extinct on                Plate 043                      p.093      numbers for food by Māori and European settlers alike. People expressed
             Apteryx owenii                         the mainland. Fortunately, five birds from South Westland were released on                                                         concern at its decline in numbers in the late 1880s, and it has been fully
             Little spotted kiwi                    Kāpiti Island in 1912. All the little spotted kiwi known today are descended             Nestor meridionalis meridionalis          protected since 1907. As with many New Zealand forest birds, it was long
             Kiwi pukupuku                          from these five birds, including about 1200 birds now on Kāpiti Island (the              South Island kākā                         thought that clearance of forests for farming was the main cause of the
                                                    largest population).                                                                                                               kākā’s decline.
                                                        Kiwi chicks are fully feathered when they hatch out of their enormous                                                              Kākā have become common throughout the Wellington Town Belt after
                                                    eggs. Weighing less than 150 g, they look like miniature adult birds, and are                                                      they were reintroduced to the predator-proof-fenced Zealandia sanctuary
                                                    able to forage for themselves within a few days of hatching. In the absence                                                        in 2002–2007. The town belt comprises mainly over-mature pine trees
                                                    of introduced predators, little spotted kiwi have a mean life expectancy                                                           and low-stature native shrubs, with an almost complete absence of the tall
                                                    of 45 years. It is likely that some birds live to a much older age; however,                                                       native canopy tree species found in surrounding forest parks. In contrast,
                                                    marking studies have not been running long enough to confirm this.                                                                 however, nearby Remutaka and Tararua forest parks have largely intact
                                                        The genus name Apteryx means ‘without wings’, but this is not quite                                                            native forests — but kākā are rare or absent. How can this be?
                                                    true: their tiny wings have just a few feathers, which are similar in length                                                           We now know that introduced stoats killing female kākā and their chicks
                                                    and structure to the shaggy body feathers that conceal the wing. The                                                               in their nest-holes was the main reason why kākā disappeared from much
                                                    oldest fossil kiwi found is estimated to be 19–16 million years old, but it                                                        of the mainland. In the absence of nest predation, kākā are able to thrive
                                                    is not known when they lost the ability to fly.                                                                                    in highly modified habitat that, until recently, was considered unsuitable
                                                                                                                                                                                       for them. It was unsuitable only because it was overrun with rats, stoats
                                                                                                                                                                                       and possums.

             314                   Nature—Stilled                                                                                            315                 Species Information
George Gibbs                           Monique Fiso
     An Exquisite Legacy: The Life and       Hiakai: Modern Māori Cuisine
      Work of New Zealand Naturalist
               G.V. Hudson

40

                                                                                The Ockhams Samplers were compiled with the assistance of the
                                                                                             Academy of New Zealand Literature.

                Leonard Bel                           Jane Ussher                        Look out for the other category samplers at:
         Marti Friedlander: Portraits                Nature — Stilled
                of the Artists

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